Thursday, April 26, 2007

SCANDAL ON THE SAND by John Trinian

John Trinian was a working name of Zekial Marko. He was a former> convicted criminal who started publishing when he got out of jail> in the early sixties. His first novel was under his real name> (Scratch a Thief, Fawcett Gold Medal 1961, also as Once a Thief),> after which he started using the pseudonym. As Trinian, he> published five or six novels with various paperback houses, such> as Pyramid.>> Scratch a Thief is an excellent novel, you should try it. That's> the only book I've read by him, sadly, so I can't comment on the> others. >> Juri Nummelin (on Rara-Avis)

Ed here:

Further information on Trinian has him writing for The Rockford Files and other TV shows. While I don't think he was as good as Malcolm Braly, another Gold Medal author who served hard time, I do think his novels had both a lyrical and sexual aspect that we don't find in most of Braly.

I just finished Trinian's SCANDAL ON THE SAND (1964) and I have to say that it offers just about everything I ask for from a novel. A unique story, a strong voice, a definite worldview and several compelling characters, most notably the rich young woman at the book's center, Karen Fornier.

A dying killer whale washes up on a stretch of deserted Southern California beach. Karen, hungover and dismal that she finally gave into the childish wanna-be macho man Hobart, the one her parents would like her to marry...she leaves their beach motel hoping to lose him. Wandering along the beach she finds the whale and for her its appearance is almost religious. The way she bonds with it is moving and is a credit to Trinian's skill.

Hobart insists that the whale is dead and should be cut up for cat food. He finds a sinister, arrogant young cop, Mulford, who agrees with him. Mulford orders a tow truck to come in and drag it away. He then orders Hobart and Karen to leave the area. Hobart sees in the harsh machismo of Mulford everything he's secretly wanted to be, that not even his considerable inheritance could buy him. He sides with Mulford and tries to drag Karen away. But she defies them both and stays. Not even when the whale proves to be alive will Mulford stop the tow truck. He says he'll shoot the whale.

All this is being observed from close-by a hood named Bonniano who is to meet a runner who will give him enough money to escape to Mexico. Bonniano is in the news for being a hit man who last night iced a prominent mob figure. Everybody's looking for him.

These and others play into the story of whale on the beach. The character sketches show the influences of Sherwood Anderson and John O'Hara and the cutaways to life on the beach bring the 1964 era alive. Boys wearing white clam digger pants--girls lying about in pink bikinis with transistor radios stuck to their ears--and just about everybody managing to grab themselves a little marijuana whenever the opportunity comes up...all this being the lull before the flower power storm that was less than two years away.

2 comments:

Marko was one of the best friends I've ever had. We ran together in Marin County and Sausalito in the early to late Sixties. He was never a criminal, much less convicted of anything. This is all myth-making, maybe even by Marko himself. After all, he not only wrote under John Trinian, he made up the name "Zekial Marko." Zekial he picked out of the Bible, Marko was because he felt he was a gypsy. His real name was Marvin Smucker. You can see why he changed it. He was born in 1931 and his mother lived in San Bruno. He wrote House of Evil starring me and him. He was Paul Berko. I was Anne Woodbridge. And I was there for the entire writing and making of Once A Thief. So please, forget the criminal nonsense. I do wish I could find him. That's why I ran across this. Looking for Marko.